For years, government transactions and contracts have been kept from public who may wish to review where their taxes go and how their elected officials act in their behalf. Arguments from supporters and opposition of WikiLeaks have grown throughout the years, posing a question as to whether or not WikiLeaks is beneficial or detrimental to the public. Although some may see WikiLeaks as a threat to national security due to the nature of its disclosures, WikiLeaks highlights the necessity of transparency and policy reform.
Wikileaks is a non-profit organisation that started in 2006 by Julian Assange, an Australian editor and activist. WikiLeaks got attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks about the operations of US army in Afghanistan. Since its website started in 2015, it published over 10 million of documents that revealed serious violations of human rights. Also, diplomatic phone calls and messages between governments’ leaders, which exposed many hidden personal agenda that governments kept hidden from the public. Wikileaks main purpose can be described as James Ball, an ex-WikiLeaks staffer, said: “Same as the CIA or [Britain’s] GCHQ find secrets for their governments, the idea was WikiLeaks would get them for everyone.”
Wikileaks benefits ranged from exposing non-ethical military actions to governments corruption. In 2010, Wikileaks leaked many documents which reveal that hundreds of people were held for years in Guantanamo without any charges and ill-treated. For example, many of those detainees, documents revealed, were isolated for more than two weeks in solitary confinement in preparation for interrogation. This led to change U.S. image internationally from a country that leads liberties to an oppressive and unjust one. Wikileaks was involved in the 2008 Peru oil scandal by leaking audio tape of a conversation between a government official and a lobbyist agreeing to let a specific company to win contracts. This scandal ended by the prime minster at then to resign from his position. Therefore, Wikileaks plays an important role in changing toward a more transparent world.
Although Wikileaks benefits are undeniable, it has some drawbacks. People who are against Wikileaks says that it exposes sensitive information that could put countries security at risk. For example, Wikileaks revealed ways that a state-of-the art television could serve as a listening device even when it was turned off. Larry Pfeiffer, the former CIA chief of staff, said “these kinds of breaches informs the potential enemies of a technique we use, that they can now develop countermeasures against”. Also, “WikiLeaks published stolen documents obtained from computer hacking or otherwise obtained illegally”, James Lewis QC, a representer of US Government said. That mean it infringes privacy plus security. However, these claims are not solid enough because revealing how US government may spy on its citizens is not security threat it is the opposite, and most of leaks that Wikileaks expose were sent by citizens or government officials that fed-up with their non-ethical behaviours of their government.
While Wikileaks disclosures may have some downsides such as threatening countries security, its benefits are more important in order to push government to change its policies of transparency as the latter is for the common good of people, which is the first priorities to achieve by any government.
Salah Eddine Benchabiba
Semester 3, Department of English Studies
Chouaib Doukkali University of El Jadida
